Chocopalooza, Days Two and Three: Food Porn

It’s been an extremely productive two days, and (fortunately!) there have been no more flying kitten incidents. Remarkably, despite adding two flavors to the list, Susan and I are on track with my planned timeline – we’ve been completing about five flavors a day, while mixing up five more flavors for the following day. Here’s what we’ve finished so far:

Not bad for three days’ work! While I haven’t weighed out the last five flavors yet (they’re still on trays from the night before), my best calculation is that we’ve made 45 lbs of chocolates in the last three days, with another 15 pounds to be finished today. The total for the year looks like it will be 85-90 pounds, which is about par for the course. (It might be more if I succumb to temptation and dip the candied ginger and dried apricots. I don’t have room for them in the boxes, but I have the apricots and candied ginger already, and will have plenty of leftover chocolate, so there is no reason not to make them if I have time. I’m sure my chocolate packers and coworkers will appreciate them, and it will get them out of the house so I don’t eat them all!)

And here is your food porn for the day:

Vanilla latte centers, cut and ready for dipping

Salted lavender caramelsFig-cognac

Egg nogStrawberry balsamic vinegarCandied bergamot peel

I’m very pleased with how they are coming out – the backgrounds (gold and red) have just enough visual texture to be interesting, but not so much texture that they compete with the central image. And the gold in particular makes a very pretty background. I will definitely do this again next year!

Off to work on more chocolates! This morning I need to mix up the caramelized banana ganache, and put away the five flavors from yesterday. This is a bit more involved than it sounds – trimming the excess colored cocoa butter background from each chocolate, finding the most perfect chocolates for photography, picking out any rejects, and then putting them carefully away in containers. Finishing this can easily take a couple of hours.

But before I descend into the chocolate mines, your kitten for the day. Here’s Tigress attacking her mortal enemy – Mike’s socks!